Transformation: Website

It’s all about metamorphosis in my writing career this year. No, I’m not planning to go from unknown to bestselling, but I am transforming. My website is the first caterpillar to morph into a butterfly.

In the three (or is it four now?) years that I’ve had my website, I’ve changed the theme multiple times. The last time I gave it a serious overhaul was in the fall of 2016. I hired a consultant to help me with it.
This time, I also hired a professional…to help with branding. More on that next week.
At the end of last year, my local writers’ group had a brand specialist speak to us. She has an online course that helps creative types design and build their own website.
After I got her five FREE emails about the subject, I asked her to recommend a WordPress theme that I could use. She recommended one that I would have had to purchase, so I asked about free themes.
And thus my introduction to Make came to be.

What I Want

What I’d really like for my website is something fantastic and unique.
For example, I visited Cornelia Funke’s webpage in 2016 and sighed over it. (Check it out here. Isn’t is amazing?)
I showed it to my son (the one who worked as a website designer for awhile) in hopes he would step up and transform my very non-unique and unexciting page into the wonderful world of WOW.
But my cajoling and begging had no affect on him. Even when I offered to PAY him for the work, he wasn’t compelled to help me.
So I resorted to using a new theme and doing what I could to spice things up.

What I Have

This past summer, I attended the Oregon Christian Writer’s Conference (read about that here), and in the class I took from Susan May Warren (whose website is also nice but in an entirely different way from Ms. Funke’s).
If you want to be a successful novelist (or nonfiction author), you have to have a clear brand, and your author website is the obvious place to begin.

I sighed at the truth of it.

Now, I have a redesigned website. It still isn’t as amazing as Cornelia’s or as mood-inducing as Susie’s, but it’s a start.
I have TONS more graphics that promote my books. This is something that most authors do, but I hadn’t really stressed it as much in my previous designs.
Why not?
Because I didn’t want to look pushy. Or appear to only care about selling books.
But what’s the chance that someone would show up at an author’s website looking for information about their books?
*hangs head*
Now, I’ve checked my reluctance at the door and delved into the task of giving multiple opportunities for visitors to my site to interact with my books.

What Do You Like?

I asked my Facebook groupies to check out my new page. And three people responded after they did it.
All of the feedback was positive. One comment compelled me to revisit the placement and design of a couple things.
Now I’m reaching out to you…the person who faithfully reads my blog. Maybe you’re like my husband and get every post delivered to your inbox. Cool! (And thanks for subscribing to my blog.)
This means you may not have EVER visited my page.
If that’s you, would you do me a HUGE favor today? Click over to my website and wander around a bit.
Then come back here and tell me what you like about it. And what you didn’t see but would have liked to see.What do you like to see and learn when you visit an author’s webpage? This is your chance to raise your voice.
I promise to read every comment, respond to them and consider the comments as my page continues to evolve as my career transforms this year.

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Sharon Lee spent her youth talking to animals, who never replied, until she escaped to Narnia, where animals did talk back. The magical portal of reading made her a dream weaver. Now, she invites fantasy addicts and dreamers to time travel into immortal, mystical realms.

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4 comments

Hullo! I’ve had a look around and here are my instinctive reactions: I like your header and the colours you’re using there – you could even make that header a bit bigger, get it to set the tone – but I’m not mad keen on the grey background everywhere else.
The layout of your ‘for writers’ page is great, I think: clear, contains heaps, but easy to navigate.The home page has a display at the top which seems not to respond to the width of the screen – it chops off both ends on my screen (laptop). The footers seem a wee bit crowded, too.
Your author page is great, though: clear to read and engaging.
I hope this is all of some use – and if you wanted to have a look at my site and make some suggestions, that would be very welcome!

Thanks for all the input. On the HOME page, that is a layout of columns not a footer that seems “crowded” to you (I think). And the display at the top is supposed to rotate through the books…so I’ll have to look at that. Of course, this theme looks completely different on mobile and tablet and computer. I generally do all the changes on my computer, though.

Possibly the rotating book display is set to a fixed width, regardless of the theme reacting to the device? I’m no expert, mind you – if anything happens to my husband (God forbid) I’ll have to become a Luddite!